Author: Njih Favour
This project is funded by: It is a Saturday morning and residents in Tshikota township, Makhado municipality, mainly women and children, are seen in the streets carrying empty 25-liter containers in search of water. In one of the busy streets, two children are pushing a wheelbarrow carrying a 25-liter container full of water. In the township, about 2 km east of Louis Trichardt town, some residents buy water from those who own boreholes or water vendors driving up and down the streets in bakkies, while others rely on solar-driven boreholes. Thabang Tlou, secretary of the South African National Civic Organisation,…
US President Donald Trump’s administration has cut life-saving aid to many African countries. (Photo: White House/Shealah Craighead) News & Features 1st April 2025 | Jesse Copelyn There is no shortage of myths about the cancellation of US foreign assistance. This includes the widely held misconception that PEPFAR is exempt from US aid cuts and the belief that grant terminations are just taking place in South Africa. Many of these falsehoods have been reinforced by US and South African officials. Spotlight and GroundUp dissect some of the most popular misconceptions. Myth 1: USAID cuts only apply to South Africa For some,…
A KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) family is mourning the loss of 17-year-old Bongani Nthangase who died after being robbed and stabbed outside a popular restaurant on Durban’s North Beach last week. On Thursday afternoon, around 3pm, Nthangase from Chatsworth was at the beach when two young men approached him, demanding his cellphone and other valuables. He didn’t have any valuables to hand over, so the robbers stabbed him and fled the scene. The teenager was left in the beachfront parking lot, 500 metres from a mobile police station. Lifeguards administered first aid, and a bystander offered to drive him to Addington Hospital,…
Around 12.8% of South Africa’s population is living with HIV. (Photo: Towfiqu Barbhuiya/Pexels) News & Features 31st March 2025 | Marcus Low The number of people living with HIV in South Africa has for the first time reached the eight million mark. Of these, around 6.2 million are on treatment, according to new estimates. The number of people living with HIV in South Africa continues to rise, surpassing eight million in 2024. This is according to just-released estimates from Thembisa, the leading mathematical model of HIV and TB in South Africa. The eight million amounts to 12.8% of the population.…
#InsideTheBox is a column by Dr Andy Gray, a pharmaceutical sciences expert at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Pharmaceutical Policy and Evidence Based Practice. (Photo: Supplied) Comment & Analysis 28th March 2025 | Andy Gray What medicines do you need prescriptions for and who is authorised to write those prescriptions is not a straight-forward matter. In his latest #InsideTheBox column, Dr Andy Gray explains how the system works now and sets out how it might be improved. In South Africa, medicines are scheduled in a few broad categories: those that can be bought…
by Shelley Humphreys, CEO, Save Our Schools NPO The deadline that basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube set for the eradication of pit latrines is fast approaching. All indications are: this is another deadline that will not be met. This is despite the minister’s recent announcement that 93% of pit latrines have been replaced at 3372 schools identified by the department. There are a lot of questions about this eradication plan. I’ve been trying to find out what schools are on the identified list, but haven’t had much luck. It’s not clear if there is an official list that the public…
Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has expressed growing concerns about the country’s ability to address health inequalities. In his address during the second meeting of the G20 Health Working Group in Durban this week, Motsoaledi says the country’s efforts to invest in accessible, affordable and comprehensive primary health care for all are threatened by the harsh realities of global economic constraints. “We are witnessing a concerning trend: declining global health budgets simultaneously with rising costs. This is particularly acute in the Global South, where many nations are burdened by unsustainable debt servicing. These debt repayments are cannibalising health budgets, leaving…
Nosipho Matsoara, a data capturer, takes down details from two trial candidates at the Be Part Clinical Research Centre in Mbekweni, Paarl. (Photo: Chris Bateman) News & Features 26th March 2025 | Chris Bateman The world desperately needs an effective TB vaccine to reduce the illness and death still being caused by the centuries’ old bacterium. As we mark World TB Day, Spotlight visited a study site in Paarl where a promising experimental TB vaccine is now being tested as part of a large multi-country clinical trial. The first dose of an experimental tuberculosis (TB) vaccine was administered on February…
25 Mar SAHPRA Strengthens Regulatory Excellence: Celebrating the 2025 Graduates of the Clinical Assessors Programme Posted at 14:12h in News & Updates by Melanie Govindasamy Pretoria, 24 March 2025 –The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), in partnership with Pharmacometrics Africa and the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the University of the Witwatersrand, proudly announces the graduation of the fourth cohort from the Clinical Assessors Short Course — a flagship programme aimed at upskilling professionals within African Regulatory Agencies. The 14-week certified course continues to play a pivotal role in addressing the growing demand for regulatory science expertise…
This project is funded by: In Siyahlala, an informal settlement in the heart of Phillipi, Cape Town, the toilets supplied by the city have been blocked for a year. As a result around 300 households in Section G of the informal settlement use buckets to relieve themselves, before dumping them into the toilets that no longer flush. Lona Bukula, who’s been living here since 2016, says the sewage started overflowing when a nearby drain got blocked, causing the toilets to block too. The situation is so bad that waste collectors don’t take the garbage away because the sewage is running…